Playhouse Rocketship - Part 1

Joshua's birthday is in about a week and I decided a few days ago that I'd build him a rocketship playhouse for his birthday. One of his favourite things to do right now is to play in a little IKEA KOJA tent. He is always asking for one of us to go in the tent with him.

His little sister Lauren and Oscar the cat both like playing in the tent as well. Hopefully they'll all like the new rocketship.

With a little more than a week to go I'm not sure if I'll get this one done. Maybe the time crunch will be a good thing and force me to finish this project off in a reasonable amount of time.

First I drew up a quick plan in Sketchup :


Using Sketchup, I haven't been able to figure out how to cut the door out of the cylinder. It'll be easier to cut the hole in the wood :)

For the cylinder and cone I'll use some 1/8 masonite, white on one side and brown on the other. This'll save me from having to paint it. The floor and support rings will be out of 3/4" good one side plywood and the rocket motors are from leftover dimensional lumber.

I picked up the plywood last night and stacked it in the shop. Next I scrounged up some leftover dimensional lumber and glued up almost enough blanks for the rocket motors. I managed to use up all the Bessey clamps in the shop - does that mean I can buy some more?


Next up - a circle cutting jig for rotor and bandsaw table.

Craftsman Mailbox - Step 4

The mailbox is shaping up nicely. After a quick coat of stain (Minwax Provincial) on the bottom panel which will be floating, I glued up the mailbox.




I cut 1.5" off the solid top and glued it on top of the mailbox. This way when the mailbox is opened there will be sufficient angle in the top to lean against the house while the mailbox is filled or emptied.

I dropped the top off at a local engraver who will laser engrave 'Post' into the top. Once I get it back I'll stain and finish the piece. I still haven't picked out the hinges yet - I'll get some the next time I hit a hardware store.

Here's the image that I gave him to engrave :

Craftsman Mailbox - Step 3

This project is moving a bit slowly as any time the sun is shining I am out painting the house. In any case, I've got the front glued up.

I did a two part glue up, on the first operation I left out the two middle horizontal rails, I did put them in place to help align the pieces.

In regards to joinery, there are many good ways to join the vertical styles to the horizontal rails. Mortise and tenon, dowels or dominos are a few. I had every intention of using dowels. I even drilled a few holes. I used dowel centers to mark the matching holes but try as I might was unable to get the parts to line up. After several tries I gave up. Maybe next time I'll have a dowel jig. For now I just butted them up and glued them. I used good glue (Titebond III) so hopefully it'll stay together.



After the first glue-up had dried, I sanded the piece flush, cut the dado for the bottom then glued in the middle rails.

For the rest of the mailbox I cut the dado in the back and sides, trimmed the sides at a 13 degree angle, then planed down the bottom shelf to fit in the dado. Last I sanded everything to 120 with a random orbit sander.

Craftsman Mailbox - Step 2

After rough cutting all the sides, top bottom and gluing up the blank for the back, it was time to move on to the front of the mailbox. The front is an open web design allowing you to see if there is any mail before you open the box.

First I cut out the top and bottom rails, and the vertical stiles.


The horizontal middle rails were up next. I had some 6/4 stock that to cut the 1 1/8" thick pieces out of. I started with a 2 1/4" x 10 3/4" piece and used a stacked dado head cutter to cut the 1 1/4" dadoes. I then ripped the 2 1/4" into two 1" horizontal rails.



That's all I had time for. Next I'll glue up the front, without the middle rails so I can easily the joints smooth.

Craftsman Mailbox

I still haven't finished the Railroad Clock. It's still waiting for it's finish and assembly. Maybe soon...

In the meantime I've picked up a new project. As I was staining the front of the house on the weekend, I removed the mailbox and decided not to put it back up. Instead I searched around and found a nice mailbox to build to replace it. Above you can see what the final product should look like.

I'm building this out of Red Oak because that's what I've got laying around. It should be built out of Quartersawn White Oak but I don't have any of that laying around. Maybe next mailbox.

To start with I made up a design plan in Google Sketchup 7. I'll use 3/4 material for the box, and 3/8 for a floating bottom. I'll likely get the hinges at Home Depot and we've got a friend that does laser engraving to cut the letters in the top for me.


I found a 9 1/2" x 8' 4/4 board on the shelf and planed it down to 3/4". Next I cut it in half and ran both halves through the jointer to get one square edge. Lastly, over to the tablesaw to square up the opposite side at about 9". A bit of time spent squaring up the lumber results in this :


Now with the tablesaw and mitre saw I cut out the pieces for the top, sides, bottom and back. I'll add the angled cuts to the top and sides later and plane down the bottom to 3/8" after I cut the mortises. Here's what I ended up with after 45 minutes. I found a piece of scrap to add to the back to get it to the 9 1/2" required.


Next up will be the front.